Saving Mike
by flameshark2
Summary: Set after "The Floating Sword". Amanda and Owen rush to save Mike but he is different now, changed, darker. The ninjas are going to have to use all they've got to save Mike... and themselves.
1. What Dark Side?

1: Saving Mike

Amanda POV

They started out as little moments. Moments where Mike and I would really connect. Moments where I would get to know him, and even start to like him. Now they happened so often that Mike was almost always on my mind.

Owen and I were waiting outside of the school while Mike got his notebook.

"Where is he?" I said impatiently after a few minutes.

"I'm gonna go check on him." Owen replied.

He walked back into the school. After a couple minutes he came racing back outside.

"Amanda, you better come see this."

I followed him into the school, to Mike's locker. There was glass everywhere, Mike's locker was still open, and there was no sign of Mike.

"Mike?" I called, looking around for any sign of him.

I looked down and saw a note on the floor:

_Bring the floating sword to the place this started if you ever want to see Mike again._

_ KF_

"Owen."

"Yeah."

He read the note and his eyes widened.

"Evil Gramps has him. What are we gonna do?" He said.

"Let's talk to hologramps and see what he has to say."

We raced to the dojo, taking the tunnels, since Mike still had the Mon. We told hologramps what happened and showed him the note.

"No, this is bad, we can't let the sword fall into the wrong hands, but we cannot risk losing Mike, either." He said.

"Evil gramps said 'to the place this started', that's the museum, right?" I say.

"Yeah, it's gotta be." Owen agreed.

"We should scout the place and if we see Mike we get him out of there ASAP."

"Let's go"

We changed into our ninja suits and headed to museum. Mike was just sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. When he saw us he stood. He wasn't tied up or anything. I look at Owen and we both think the same thing. _This must be a trap._ We go to Mike and evil gramps walks out of the shadows.

"Ah, ninjas, you came." He says.

Owen and I take a fighting stance.

"No need for that, take him, I give up."

We look at each other. _What?_

"Why would you give up so easily?" I ask.

"Who cares, let's get Mike and get out of here before he changes his mind." Owen says.

"What did you do to him?"

"Listen to your friend and get out of here. I did nothing to your precious Mike, at least nothing that wasn't already inside of him." Evil gramps says.

"What does that mean?" I demand.

"I simply let out the darkest in the boy, all that pent up rage, it's a wonder he's so calm."

I look over at Mike, he seems the same, just quieter.

"You okay?" I ask him.

"Yep."

"Let's go."

We use our grappling hooks, Mike borrowing a spare, and swung back to the dojo. After we got out of our ninja suits, I sat down and watched Mike. He seemed like the same Mike, but there was something a little off.

Still, I couldn't help thinking that this was all too easy.


	2. His Dark Side

2:

At school

Owen POV

I walk into school with Amanda, since Mike was nowhere to be found when I went to his house. We open our lockers and take out our books, just as Mike walks in.

"There he is," I say. "Wait what is he wearing?"

Mike was wearing a tight fitting white V-neck with a black leather jacket and skinny jeans.

"Wow." Amanda breathes.

"Hey Mike," I call. "Over here."

He sees us and starts to walk over. On the way over some blonde kid bumps into him. Mike steadies himself but the other kid falls.

"Sorry." The blonde apologizes.

"Yeah you better be, klutz. Watch where you're going next time."

Mike kicked the kid and walked over to us.

"Hey." He deadpans.

"What was that?" I ask.

"Nothing _you_ need to worry about."

I go through the day trying to pretend nothing happened, but I can't stop thinking of Mike and the blonde kid. Is he just having a bad day, or was this what Evil Gramps was talking about? The teacher called on me 6 times and I just stared at him blankly. The rest of the classes were similar, I was just waiting for school to get out. Finally, the bell rang. I ran out of class and found Amanda.

"Hey, have you seen Mike?" I asked.

"No, I've been thinking about what happened this morning." She says.

"Yeah, me too."

"It's not like him even on a really bad day."

"We'd better find him before something else happens."

We walk around school looking for him, he's nowhere to be found.

"Let's check the courtyard, if he's not there then he must have just gone home without us."

From a distance away we can hear the chanting:

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

I look at Amanda, we're both thinking the same thing… Mike. We rush to the courtyard, sure enough its Mike that everyone's looking to see a fight from. I look to see who he's fighting and it's the blonde kid from this morning, with a bloody face. Mike lunges in kicks the boy in the leg, hard. The boy falls and Mike is suddenly on top of him, punching him over and over. I was standing and watching in shocked silence, but at this point I snapped out of it.

"Mike! Hey Mike stop it!" I yelled.

He kept punching the kid. I don't know how much more the kid can take. I run at Mike and tackle him off the kid. I pin him down, he breaks free and punches me. The right side of my faces explodes into pain.

"Ow!" I yell. "What was that for?"

"Stay out of my way, I was handling something." Mike spits at me.

"Not very well."

"Whatever, go away, no one needs you here."

Hurt, I turn to see Amanda helping the kid. I go up to him.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Justin."

"Well, Justin I'm sorry for what Mike did, even though he's probably not sorry, I'll apologize anyway. He isn't usually like this. Actually never like this. What happened?"

"I walked up to him after school and apologized, you know, for bumping into him, and he said something like you should be sorry. I got angry because I'd just bumped into the kid and he's acting like I killed his grandmother."

"Let's go get both of you cleaned up." Amanda suggested.

"Okay."

We followed her to her house, by the time we get clean up it's a good two hours after school. Justin thanks us and leaves. I look at Amanda.

"We need to find Mike." We say at the same time.

"JINX!" I say. "You owe me a soda."

"Whatever, let's see if he's at the dojo."

We run over to Mike's house.

"Man!"

"What?" Amanda asks.

"We don't have the mon. We really need to get one of those made for each of us."

"I guess we're gonna have to use the tunnels to get in."

"But they smell bad!"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No."

"Then let's go!"

We run through the tunnels, dodging arrows and me pinching my nose. We finally get to the dojo. I look around, Mike's suit is gone. Amanda noticed too. Suddenly, the alarms goes off. Someone just stole an armored van! We have to get there before Mike does something terrible to this guy in the state he's in. We suit up and run off into the night.

We find Mike next to the armored truck. The truck is on its side and the man driving the truck the on the ground. Mike hits him again and again, just like he did with Justin, kicking and punching.

"Mike! Mike stop it!" Amanda yells.

Mike stops hitting the guy.

"What has gotten into you?" She asks.

"People like him don't get to do what they want and not get punished."

We are both shocked by his answer.

"That's why we do what we do. We catch them and give them to police and justice wins. You caught this guy, now it's time to give him to the police so he can face justice for what he did." I try to reason with him.

"He deserves worse than police justice, you lock him up for a year, two, it doesn't change anything. He'll get out then do something like this again. He's never going to change."

"That doesn't mean we get to be judge, jury, and executioner." Amanda argues.

"Well no else seems to be doing it right, so why not?"

"Mike, you're a teenager-"

"A teenager who is a ninja, has fought a million other criminals who just keep coming back. They need to stay gone."

I hear sirens wailing in the distance. "We have to go. Mike, you can either come with us and keep fighting for what's right or you can stay, get caught, and then there are no other ninjas to save Empire City. What is it going to be?"

He didn't budge.

"Hard way it is." I swing my Bo staff at his head. His instincts don't kick in fast enough and it hits him. He falls to the ground, out cold. I toss him over my shoulder, then stumble, man, he's heavy.

"Need some help?" Amanda asks.

"Sure."

We carry Mike in between us and swing off into the shadows.


End file.
